Christian Worker Kidnapped in Iraq Last Year Is Found Slain

Michele Kayal contributed reporting for this article.

Published: March 11, 2006

An American Christian aid worker kidnapped last year in Iraq has been killed, according to the State Department and the group he worked with.

A State Department spokesman, Noel Clay, told The Associated Press that the F.B.I. had verified that a body found yesterday morning in Iraq was that of Tom Fox, 54, of Clearbrook, Va. Mr. Fox was abducted Nov. 26 with three other workers with Christian Peacemaker Teams, but Mr. Clay said he had no information on the other three hostages.

He said he did not know how Mr. Fox was killed, but said additional forensic tests would be done in the United States. The American Embassy in Baghdad is investigating, he said.

The Rev. Carol Rose, co-director of Christian Peacemaker Teams, said in a telephone interview last night from the group's Toronto office that she understood that Mr. Fox had died of a gunshot wound, but she declined to say where he had been shot.

His family did not want to speak publicly, she said.

Ms. Rose said that in case he was abducted or killed, he had signed a ''statement of conviction'' appearing on his Web log: ''We reject violence to punish anyone. We ask that there be no retaliation.''

Mr. Fox was in Iraq investigating allegations that American and Iraqi forces were abusing Iraqi detainees, and was also working for an end to the occupation, Ms. Rose said.

On Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, Al Jazeera television broadcast a brief video, dated Feb. 28, of the three other abducted Christian Peacemaker members, purportedly appealing to their governments to secure their release. They are James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, both of Canada, and Norman Kember, 74, of Britain.

The previously unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigades has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.

The four hostages had been seen earlier in a video played by Al Jazeera on Jan. 28, dated from a week before, The A.P. reported. A statement reportedly accompanying that tape said they would be killed unless all Iraqi prisoners were released from United States and Iraqi prisons. No deadline was set.

Mr. Fox had worked with Christian Peacemakers in Iraq for a few years, Ms. Rose said.

''He has worked for justice for Iraqi detainees,'' she said. ''Over the years, one of the things that Tom and the other teammates have managed to do is connect families to information about their loved ones who are missing, accompany them in the dangerous process of trying to look for their family members.''

According to The A.P., Iraqi and Western security officials repeatedly warned the four before their abduction that they were taking a grave risk by moving around Baghdad without bodyguards.

Photo: Tom Fox, in an image that was televised by Al Jazeera on Jan. 28. (Photo by Al Jazeera, via Associated Press)